AHL Bridgeport Islanders

Cronin & Baseggio Notch All-Star Coaching Spots

January 5, 2004 - American Hockey League (AHL)
Bridgeport Islanders News Release


BRIDGEPORT, CT –The American Hockey League's Bridgeport Sound Tigers, the top affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, have announced Head Coach Greg Cronin and Assistant Coach Dave Baseggio will coach the PlanetUSA team at the 2004 Pepsi AHL All-Star Classic in Grand Rapids, Michigan on February 8th and 9th.

Cronin and Baseggio notched the all-star coaching berths by virtue of the Sound Tigers clinching the League's highest winning percentage this past weekend even thought the cutoff date is not until the end of this week. The Sound Tigers are currently in first place in the overall AHL standings with a .716 winning percentage, 53 points and a 23-7-5-2 record.

By virtue of leading the Houston Aeros to last season's AHL Calder Cup Championship, Todd McLellan will coach the Canadian All-Star team next month in Grand Rapids.

Cronin was named the second head coach in Sound Tigers history last June replacing Steve Stirling who was named the Islanders new bench boss. The Boston, Massachusetts native spent the previous five season as an assistant coach on Long Island and still retains the role of director of player development for the big club.

Cronin joined the Islanders in 1998 after a two-year stint with USA Hockey as director of player development and head coach of the Under-18 US National Team. He was also an assistant coach for Team USA at two World Championships and two World Junior Championships, including the 1996-97 junior squad that captured the silver medal in Geneva, Switzerland, which was the highest finish in US history until today's 4-3 gold-medal-clinching win over Canada in Helsinki, Finland. Cronin also led the under-18 team to the 1998 North American Junior Hockey League Finals. While with USA Hockey, he worked with many future NHL players including Mark Parrish, Scott Gomez, Mike York and David Tanabe.

Prior to joining USA Hockey, Cronin served as an assistant coach at the University of Maine from 1993 through 1996 and was an interim head coach from December 1995 through December 1996 winning his first seven games behind the bench and leading the Black Bears to a 27-12-2 record and a trip to the Hockey East Finals. At Maine, he helped develop such notable players as Paul Kariya, Keith Carney and Islanders Goaltender Garth Snow. Cronin also served as a graduate assistant coach at Maine from 1988 through 1990 while pursuing a Master's in Business Administration.

From 1990 through 1993, Cronin was as an assistant coach at Colorado College under Brad Buetow helping to build a Tigers program that advanced to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament for the first time in 1992 and has now reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association quarterfinals eight times.

Cronin was as an assistant coach during the 1987-88 season at Colby College in Waterville, Maine where he earned a Bachelor's degree in History and American Studies in 1986. He was originally recruited to play both hockey and football for the White Mules.

Baseggio joined the Sound Tigers for their inaugural season in 2001-02 after serving as an assistant coach with the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers the previous year. The Niagara Falls native also works closely with the Islanders assisting with conditioning camps during the off-season and training camps in the fall.

Baseggio captained the hockey team at Yale University and graduated with a degree in Economics in 1989 and holding the Bulldogs' all-time scoring records for a defenseman with 29 goals, 79 assists and 108 points in 111 games between 1985 and 1989.

Baseggio was the fourth pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 1986 NHL draft and had an 11-year, professional, playing career in the American and International Hockey Leagues, as well as Europe. He won the IHL's Turner Cup Championship as a rookie with the Indianapolis Ice in 1990, made a trip to the AHL's Calder Cup Finals with the Rochester Americans a year later, won another championship in Italy with Bolzano in 1994, returned to the IHL finals with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2000 and made a trip to the 2002 AHL Calder Cup Finals during his first season as an assistant coach with the Sound Tigers. Baseggio was also a two-time IHL All-Star.

All told, Baseggio played professionally for ten teams. He spent the majority of his first three seasons, 1989-92, with Rochester while squeezing in his title run with Indianapolis and a stint with the AHL's 1991-92 New Haven Nighthawks. Baseggio then played two years in Europe with Lyss in Switzerland in 1992-93 before joining the title team in Bolzano. He returned to North America in 1994 and played all but 72 games, spent with the 1994-95 Worcester IceCats, of the remainder of his career in the IHL. Baseggio skated for the Detroit Vipers in 1994-95, the Cleveland Lumberjacks from 1995 through 1999, the Houston Aeros for part of the 1996-97 season and Detroit again in 1999-2000 before heading to Grand Rapids that same season.

The Sound Tigers will play the first two of six straight road games and begin a stretch in which they will play eight of the next ten games on the road when they visit the Norfolk Admirals this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and this Sunday at 4 p.m. Both of this weekend's games will be web cast live at www.soundtigers.com. Saturday's game will also be broadcast live on 600 WICC-AM.

Sound Tigers individual-game tickets are on sale at Bridgeport's Arena at Harbor Yard box office Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., Saturday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. and on all game days, as well as on-line at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling Ticketmaster at 203-368-1000.

Information regarding Sound Tigers Family Four Packs, season tickets, partial plans, flex packs, group discounts, birthday parties, suite packages, upcoming games and promotions and sponsorship opportunities is available by calling 203-334-GOAL or logging on to www.soundtigers.com. Groups, organizations, companies, etc. that are interested in having a member of the Sound Tigers appear at an event are also invited to call 203-334-GOAL or email info@soundtigers.com.

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